Nieuwland Mante S, Otten Marte, Van Berkum Jos J A
Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Feb;19(2):228-36. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.2.228.
In this event-related brain potentials (ERPs) study, we explored the possibility to selectively track referential ambiguity during spoken discourse comprehension. Earlier ERP research has shown that referentially ambiguous nouns (e.g., "the girl" in a two-girl context) elicit a frontal, sustained negative shift relative to unambiguous control words. In the current study, we examined whether this ERP effect reflects "deep" situation model ambiguity or "superficial" textbase ambiguity. We contrasted these different interpretations by investigating whether a discourse-level semantic manipulation that prevents referential ambiguity also averts the elicitation of a referentially induced ERP effect. We compared ERPs elicited by nouns that were referentially nonambiguous but were associated with two discourse entities (e.g., "the girl" with two girls introduced in the context, but one of which has died or left the scene), with referentially ambiguous and nonambiguous control words. Although temporally referentially ambiguous nouns elicited a frontal negative shift compared to control words, the "double bound" but referentially nonambiguous nouns did not. These results suggest that it is possible to selectively track referential ambiguity with ERPs at the level that is most relevant to discourse comprehension, the situation model.
在这项事件相关脑电位（ERP）研究中，我们探究了在口语话语理解过程中选择性追踪指称歧义的可能性。早期的ERP研究表明，相对于明确的对照词，具有指称歧义的名词（例如，在有两个女孩的情境中的“那个女孩”）会引发额叶持续负向偏移。在当前研究中，我们考察了这种ERP效应反映的是“深层”情境模型歧义还是“表层”文本库歧义。我们通过研究一种话语层面的语义操作来对比这些不同的解释，这种操作能够防止指称歧义，同时也能避免引发由指称引起的ERP效应。我们将与两个话语实体相关联但指称明确的名词（例如，在情境中引入的两个女孩中的“那个女孩”，但其中一个已经死亡或离开了场景）引发的ERP与指称歧义和非歧义的对照词引发的ERP进行了比较。尽管与对照词相比，具有时间指称歧义的名词引发了额叶负向偏移，但“双重约束”但指称明确的名词却没有。这些结果表明，有可能在与话语理解最相关的情境模型层面，利用ERP选择性地追踪指称歧义。
